Rethinking adolescent development: Lessons from Ovia Osese festival, By Petra Akinti Onyegbule

The more I spoke, the more the realisation dawned on me that Ovia Osese is not just a festival but a mirror that reflects the importance of cultural heritage in shaping our identities and values. This mirror shows us what we once knew — that development is not just about GDPs and goals. It’s about girls. About boys. About building identity before celebrity, and integrity before popularity. By embracing and learning from our cultural traditions, we can build a stronger sense of self and community. If we lose that, we lose more than culture. We lose our future.

“Teenagers search for belonging; culture offers both anchor and boundary.”

These words by American Professor of Theology and Human Development, James Fowler, underscored my decision to accept the role of the speaker at the Cultural Insight Series organised by the Department of Counselling and Human Development Studies, University of Ibadan.

The lecture which held on Tuesday, 3 June, had in attendance Dr AE Awoyemi, a professor of Educational/Counselling Psychology and Head of Department of Counselling and Human Development Studies; Dr Adebunmi Oyekola of the Department of Counselling and Human Development Studies; Dr Chika Ezeugwu, a postdoctoral fellow at the Mind Brain Behaviour Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, USA; Olatunbosun Samuel Taiye, president of the Student Counselling Association of Nigeria, UI Chapter; postgraduate students (PhD and Masters) of the Developmental Psychology, Educational and Counselling Psychology Unit; and, Department of Human Nutrition and Dietetic, UI; with virtual participation from interested members of the public.

I was tasked with speaking on the “Social Context of Adolescent Development: Lessons from Ovia Osese Festival.” I will focus this article on some thoughts that have stayed with me, and the angle that our conversation took.

Adolescence is a pivotal stage of human development, spanning ages 10 to 19, marked by profound physical, emotional, cognitive, and social changes. During this period, young individuals undergo rapid growth, shaping their identities and preparing themselves for adulthood. This period brings about physical changes that can impact self-image and self-esteem. Adolescents also experience heightened emotional intensity and instability, with a growing capacity for emotional regulation and empathy, expanded emotional self-awareness, and an understanding of how these feelings influence adolescent behaviour. It is also the period that young people learn to form relationships, navigate social roles, and establish their identity, influenced by culture, family, peers, education, and societal expectations.

Several factors can affect adolescent development, leading to challenges with social relations and mental health. For the purpose of this summary, I shall narrow down these challenges to two broad influences: religion and ethnicity, which we see play out in the Almajiraici culture in Northern Nigeria and ‘Nwa Boi’ in the South-East, where young boys leave the comfort of familiar social settings and are thrust into a different world with sterner expectations, without a proper framework, and gradually ease into these new roles. The impact of these sudden transitioning is what the rites of passage tend to solve.

We often talk about adolescence like it’s a personal journey, but in our African context, it’s always been a communal transformation. One girl’s readiness to step into womanhood was once the entire community’s responsibility and nowhere is this more true than in communities like Ogori and Magongo, where the Ovia Osese festival prepares adolescent girls for womanhood and its attendant responsibilities.

Before the 21st century, girls selected for Ovia Osese were mentored for months by the Iyodina, learning hospitality, hygiene, skills like knitting and trading, and the values that defined a woman. It wasn’t about perfection. It was about preparation. This sense of responsibility, belonging and shared communal identity, are recurring themes as I reflect on the Ovia Osese festival, which for generations was our own version of preparing the adolescent girls for life. In the past, the rites of passage for girls were deliberate, and systematic. It was a formal system of informal education to groom adolescent girls to become value adding member of society, with emphasis on purity, chastity and feminine modesty.

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I couldn’t discuss the theme without emphasising gender roles, which in most African cultures are traditionally well-defined. Boys were raised to be assertive, independent, and providers, while girls were taught to be nurturing, respectful, and home-oriented. These values were reinforced through family, religion, and cultural events such as rites of passage. While these roles offer structure, they can limit freedom, expression and self-actualisation. To drive home my point on how culture influences and perpetuates gender-based identities, via gender roles, I drew parallels from Camara Laye’s The African Child and Ovia Osese festival, which are rites of passage in different West African cultures for adolescent boys and girls respectively.

And this led to one of the most poignant conversations that emerged during the presentation, centring on the rigidity of gender roles. Are they cast in stone? The answer is a resounding no. The traditional mindset that limits individuals to specific roles on the basis of their gender is not only outdated but also harmful to society. We must de-emphasise roles that stereotype or burden one gender over the other, and promote partnership over patriarchy.

Another crucial question raised was whether we can adopt the knowledge from rites of passage like Ovia Osese festival into the school curricula, to which I responded in the affirmative. By embedding culturally-rooted teachings on identity, responsibility, and resilience into our classrooms, we can create grounded, self-aware citizens who are proud of their heritage and prepared for the challenges of the modern world.

However, this requires collaboration between scholars, curriculum developers, educators, and government bodies. Imagine a civic education syllabus that incorporates rites of passage, responsibility, identity formation, and cultural literacy. This is how we can create a more holistic approach to adolescent development.

The more I spoke, the more the realisation dawned on me that Ovia Osese is not just a festival but a mirror that reflects the importance of cultural heritage in shaping our identities and values. This mirror shows us what we once knew — that development is not just about GDPs and goals. It’s about girls. About boys. About building identity before celebrity, and integrity before popularity. By embracing and learning from our cultural traditions, we can build a stronger sense of self and community. If we lose that, we lose more than culture. We lose our future.

So how do we move from here?

By beginning where it matters most: family and community. If parents, traditional leaders, educators, and policymakers stop working in silos, we can create youth development models that don’t just look like solutions, but live like them. The cultural must meet the contemporary. It’s not either/or.

As we move forward, it’s essential to recognise that development is not just about economic growth or the achievement of goals. It’s about building identity, integrity, and resilience in our adolescents. We must work together to create youth development models that are tailored to the needs of our communities and which promote holistic development.

The presentation ended but I am sure it is the beginning of conversations that can shape advocacies for the better understanding of our roles in the social development of our adolescents.

Petra Akinti Onyegbule, the CPS to former Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, is a sociologist, communications strategist and vice president of Ogori Descendants Union.